


Not Quite a Lullaby

by SarcasticSmiler



Series: And Though They Be [3]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, smidge of angst I suppose
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 05:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5900179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SarcasticSmiler/pseuds/SarcasticSmiler
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a short snippet of Frerin and baby Fili.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Quite a Lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place about a week after they arrive in the Shire.

Frerin’s eyes fluttered open, vision blurred with sleep as he looked around the room, trying to find what had woken him. A small, upset whimper soon caught his attention.

Clambering from his soft bed, Frerin shuffled over to the little wooden cot by the wall. The warm glow of the banked coals in the small fireplace offering just enough light to see the fussing dwarfling within.

“Now then, what’s all this fuss about?” he cooed, lifting Fíli from his mess of blankets to cradle him against his chest.

Fíli whimpered again, little face scrunching up as tears beaded on his lashes.

“No, no, no, don’t cry, please don’t cry,” Frerin begged, a panicked expression stealing over his face as the beaded drops rolled down his nephew’s cheeks, his whimpers changing in tone even as his little fingers grasped at the curls of hair peeking out of the open collar of Frerin’s sleep shirt.

“Oh Mahal, don’t cry,” easing himself into the rocking chair by the fireplace, Frerin started rocking back and forth, trying to calm his dwarfling before the real crying began. He wasn’t sure he could cope with that.

In all honesty, he still wasn’t convinced he was the best dwarf to care for his little golden nephew. He knew next to nothing about caring for a babe, even after caring for Fíli during the months of travel to get to the Shire and past week trying to settle in, he still felt woefully unprepared. He didn’t have the faintest idea what he was doing most of the time.

“ _Please_ don’t cry,” Frerin begged again, a tear of his own slipping down his cheek to catch in his beard, “I know I can’t compare to your amad or even your adad, but please, little one, don’t cry.”

The whimpers turned to sniffles and Frerin looked down at the tiny golden dwarfling in his arms, hazy baby blue eyes looked back at him. Taking a steading breath, Frerin began to sing; the words to the last song he ever heard his older brother sing tumbling from his lips.

_Oh, misty eye of the mountain below_   
_Keep careful watch of my brothers' souls_   
_And should the sky be filled with fire and smoke_   
_Keep watching over Durin's sons._

It was far from being a soothing dwarven lullaby, but it brought forth precious memories of his brother, of stolen moments with his siblings sitting round a roaring fire as Thorin sang of the history of their family line. Deep voice rolling through the room and sinking into your bones.

_Now I see fire_   
_Inside the mountain_   
_I see fire_   
_Burning the trees_   
_I see fire_   
_Hollowing souls_   
_I see fire_   
_Blood in the breeze_   
_And I hope that you remember me._

Truly not a lullaby, but as tears welled in Frerin’s eyes, those in Fíli’s dried. Damp, golden lashes fluttered as the words rumbling in Frerin’s chest lulled him back to sleep.

“My precious little one,” Frerin breathed, brushing a soft kiss to golden curls, “We’ll make this work, I promise.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> amad - mother/bearing dwarf  
> adad - father/siring dwarf
> 
> So I've been listening to [Peter Hollens cover of I See Fire](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yymS1Pb7JfM) recently and this came to mind. I hope you like it, I know it's not much but I'm having a little trouble with the main story at the moment so this happened instead.
> 
> Feel free to come pester me on [tumblr](http://sarcasticsmilerrandomness.tumblr.com/) if you want.


End file.
